Harry Reid Makes John Boehner An Offer On The Shutdown, And His Logic Is Spot On

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has made House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio) an offer to end the ongoing government shutdown — pass
the Senate's "clean" continuing resolution that would reopen the
government, and he will immediately appoint conferees to a budget
conference between the House and Senate.

This isn't really a "new" offer. Senate Democrats have been
pushing for a budget conference since April. And they have
pointed out that Republicans have blocked a potential budget
conference 18 times.

But it comes after the House, scrambling on Monday
night, passed a motion to form a conference
committee with the Senate to iron out differences
in the six-week continuing resolution. Reid and other Democrats
objected to this, saying Republicans are trying to negotiate with
a "gun to our heads." And the Senate killed the House motion on
Tuesday.

Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman, said the offer was a
non-starter.

“The entire government is shut down right now because
Washington Democrats refuse to even talk about fairness for all
Americans under Obamacare. Offering to negotiate only after
Democrats get everything they want is not much of an offer,"
Steel said.

In his letter to Boehner, Reid drew an analogy to
Republicans' current objects to the Affordable Care Act to his
opposition to the Iraq War.

"I hated the Iraq War. I think I hated it as much as you
hate the Affordable Care Act," Reid wrote.

"There were many gut-wrenching nights when I struggled over
what I needed to do to end the carnage. In those days, when
President Bush was Commander in Chief, I could have taken the
steps that you are taking now to block Government funding in
order to gain leverage to end the war. I faced a lot of pressure
from my own base to take that action. But I did not do that. I
felt that it would have been devastating to America."